Stem Cell Collection - Part Two

And now, for the exciting conclusion of our story of John's stem cell collection...

Tuesday, February 5
Tuesday morning, I didn't feel right when I got up. Granted, I had to be up by 6:15 to be ready to go when my brother Jeff came to pick me up to go to the hospital at 6:45. He's an attorney downtown, and can benefit from going in early, so he said he'd be willing to take me in for my 7:15 appointments throughout the week until I was done with the collection. That way, Noelle could go through her usual morning routine with the kids, and then come to the hospital after getting them off to school. Anyway, like I said, I didn't feel great. I was only able to get a few bites of cereal down, and the apple juice with which I took my morning pills didn't taste right. Unfortunately, things not tasting right is a side effect I've grown used to over the past four months, but not one I expected to come back three weeks after finishing my last round of chemotherapy. I guess Mozobil can have that effect on patients, too.

I got to the BMT clinic at the hospital and had labs drawn, then went down to what I call "the Red Cross Collection Room." The Red Cross actually oversees the collection, storage and transfusion of whole and part blood products for LDS Hospital. We had to wait about 1/2 an hour or so before we could get going on the collection. There's some number they look at in a person's blood work to determine to what degree stem cells are circulating in the blood stream, and therefore, their readiness to have stem cells collected. Whatever the number empirically represents, they want it above 10, as a minimum. The reason they collected my stem cells on Monday is because that number was at 117. On Tuesday, I was at 248. They hooked me up and set right to work on cycling through 20 liters of blood. When Noelle got there, she brought snacks and DVDs of the 3rd season of Modern Family.

Things went along OK, aside from the fact that I felt nauseous and I wasn't able to produce any saliva. Consequently, when I tried a Ritz cracker from Noelle's stash of snacks, it was like ash in my mouth. I was able to drink a little, but I remained parched. Noelle hung out with me until she had to go early in the afternoon to be with our sickies. A couple of our kids were sick and had been taken care of by a friend, but she had somewhere she had to go in the afternoon. A short time after Noelle left, I threw up. The all-day nausea had reached its climax and I was done. About 1/2 an hour later, we finished with the collection with a whopping 16 million stem cells to add to the 5 million I produced on Monday. I'm now known as Superman around East Eight. It's not quite a two-day record, but very, very close. =0) After I was done, I hung out and waited for Noelle to return to take me home. That afternoon and evening, I couldn't find the gumption to eat anything. I still felt nauseous, nothing sounded good to me, and I was absolutely wiped out physically.

Wednesday, February 6 - Friday, February 8
The next few days were rough. To start with, I had a horrible time eating, which led to tremendous lethargy and frustration. I tried so many things, and everything tasted awful and made me feel nauseous. Sometimes, just the suggestion of a particular food made me feel like throwing up. Foods I typically love were some of my least favorite things to even think about. I was able to choke down some noodles a couple times, but if they were seasoned too much they made me sick. It was really hard on Noelle to see me have such a difficult time eating. I'm the guy who has a history of having difficulty knowing when to STOP eating. I had a marathon dentist appointment on Thursday afternoon to take care of some dental work that my doctors said HAD to be done before the transplant. When I got home from that, I saw my family sitting down to a dinner of shepherd's pie that someone from church had brought for us. It looked so good. I actually ate a small serving of it, and I didn't feel like puking. It was amazing. Noelle started to cry and told me she had prayed that I would be able to eat it. Unfortunately, later that night I was hungry, but nothing - and I mean NOTHING - sounded good to me. By Friday, I was beginning to really worry that I would never feel like eating again. I forced down some spaghetti noodles with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese, but didn't enjoy it at all and couldn't finish the small portion I had prepared for myself. Friday night, I was really concerned about regaining my strength in time to return to work by Monday. Before going to bed, I had a very serious talk with my Father in Heaven. I was worried. On Tuesday, I had thrown up the little bit that I had eaten that morning, and since then had consumed only 1000 calories or so. Noelle thinks It might be as much as 2000 calories, but I think that's a bit high. Anyway, I told my Father that I really, really needed His help to be able to start eating again.

Saturday and Sunday, February 9 - 10
I began to feel a little better and was able to force myself to eat a few times on Saturday without feeling nauseous. My energy began to return, but I was still quite far from feeling anything close to "normal." Sunday was even better, and my appetite had actually returned, though my ability to find things I liked was still a little lacking. before going off to church, Noelle put a few big potatoes in the oven, and when they were finally done around 11:15 or so, I ate one and actually enjoyed my food. What a welcome change! That said, however, I knew I had a long way to go to regain my energy. Finally, though, my worries about whether or not I'd be able to return to work on Monday had subsided. I was going, whether my body felt like it or not.